H ave you ever noticed that systems of measurement tends to change when you leave the United States? Weight is typically ...

In other words, the French introduced not only national standards, but a system of standards. It survives today as the metric system.

NARRATOR: The metric system is a way of measuring things. So with length, the metric measurements are millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. A stamp, would be measured in millimetres.

In the meantime, a new system of weights and measures, developed by French scientists following the Revolution of 1789, gained increasing international use. This metric system had as its fundamental ...